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The killer The company announced on Tuesday that it is expanding its automation solutions to Walmart distribution centers.
According to a multi -year agreement, Walmart installs RANPAK car cars on the sites of Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and Sacramento, California, subway. Walmart is currently using this equipment The Indianapolis Region Realization Center automatically automatically closes the blank and closed the box to increase productivity.
This is the second big deal Ranpak landed this year with an e -commerce giant. In January, Amazon agreed to spend $ 400 million for an eight -year deal to obtain 18.7 million RANPAK shares, which is estimated at 17 % of the company’s shares.
“I don’t think the signature of business and strategic transactions is easy in the way we have the two largest, most important retailers and e -commerce players,” said Omar Asali. “I am certainly very proud to be there and I am very proud of my team. Get the approval of the greatest players there is very good.”
Asali, CEO of Ohio since 2019, said Ranpak will still invest in the business sector that produces the packaging. At the same time, a large part of the company’s strategy is to move towards more automation innovation and the use of artificial intelligence in delivering your equipment.
Omar Asali, CEO of Ranpak
Permit granted by Ronpak
“I know all talking about artificial intelligence is stylish for everyone,” Asali said. But we take these investments very seriously because we think it will be important to our trip in terms of market share and winning large accounts. “
Asali talked to Packaging Dive on topics such as AI active automation, stability, navigation of economic uncertainty and predictions for traditional future holidays.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Packaging Dive: This Walmart deal is the second case with an e -commerce giant this year. Is your strategy to move more toward these large corporate customers now instead of serving smaller customers?
Life of Asali: No, I say. Furthermore; It’s not to get away from anything.
We are a 50 -year -old company. The heritage trade around the packaging has been all stable and all based on fiber. We are exposed to zero to plastic and we have a great deal to work with small and medium -sized companies and help them carry the product.
We have made a few transactions with some larger companies. I say, the last two years we have emphasized more to make sure we win our market share with big companies, because this is where we are listed. But certainly, in addition to covering small and medium-sized companies-is not.
The Walmart transaction for your machinery is about false filling, unlike legal boxing equipment – and legal for the past few years has been hot. What kind of demand do you see for these two different technologies and how do you balance your focal areas?
We see very strong demand for automation. Whether it is right, whether it is an automatic vacuum, whether it is closed, even packaging or demanding a request, we are seeing a very strong need for these products.
This is guided by a few things. One is the only amount of transport that great players are carrying. And to address that type of volume, they need more automated solutions.
Two, just a shortage of labor and workforce, frankly. Recently, even some of the migration changes have increased pressure on these children and their needs that we enter the peak season later this year. In addition, probably some of the tax benefits when investing in equipment and accelerating depreciation.
I think this is a perfect reason. All of these factors are increasing the level of conversation we make with customers.
You mentioned the seasonal pickup during the holiday season. But we now see a lot of economic pressure on consumers and reduce shopping in certain sectors. Are you worried about this?
I am concerned about the focus of activity. In this sense, I like to see more economic activities, where smaller companies, middle -aged companies, large companies are doing well and growing.
What I see is the pressure you have highlighted, more use of smaller players. The big players move a large volume and continue to grow. So, however, let’s call it more uncertainty about the consumer, I think the older players continue to sell and continue to grow, given their speed, their efficiency, given how much they can be in terms of price and competitive cost.
My personal expectations for the peak season are very positive. Of all the signs we have today, we really think this year’s peak season will be quite strong. This may be more focused on the number of players who win the market share, but in general, we think it will be strong.
During your second trimester’s call this month, you have repeatedly mentioned the challenging economic environment, plus a 3 % reduction in RANPAK since April and reorganizing trade in July. But at the same time, you have predicted growth in the second half of the year, and this will be a “inflation point”. Explain this in more detail.
Like any other company, we try to be efficient. Therefore, sometimes that pruning and some of the main reduction is only needed to continue efficiency and continue to provide competitive prices to customers. So we will do this constantly and improve our costs and bring efficiency to our business.
This is a bottom-up view that we are talking to many customers-Ranpak has 36,000 users in 50 countries, and we talk to many of these customers to understand their desires. We try to predict with them, by entering the peak season, arrange their needs. What we hear is in e -commerce, people expect a very good season in the United States. People in industrial activities are slightly more than this question about the prospects of the economy, and especially with regard to tariffs.
In Europe, in e -commerce, it seems a little more challenged. So this is not as strong. Industrial activities are now starting to choose, but it was a little weaker. So, when you put all these factors together, and our geographical traces and our jobs in Australia and Japan, this is what assures us in the second half of the year. We think many activities are directed by large corporate accounts, especially in e -commerce.
Talk about those big accounts, let’s go back to your Amazon deal in January. Why is this important to your company?
It is very important because we are better off in Ranpak by serving these customers who are very demanding, these customers who move a lot of product. They put us under pressure to be more efficient. They lead us to innovation, research and development. They lead us to our article business and our automation business. And that, just frankly, makes us a better company.
In my opinion, deepening cooperation with a person like Amazon and Walmart has a great tangible benefits for us as a business, as we continue to deal with our company scale, we continue to share in the market and continue to be the leader of innovation and technology.
The world is changing. Every industry is changing thanks to artificial intelligence, robotics, automation. These are not stereotypes or words we use slowly. These are the words we invest a lot of money to improve our products and solutions.
The biggest validation is when the world’s largest customers come and say, “We want to sign a strategic partnership with you, because we like how you innovate and how you use technology.”
Talk more about the relationship between artificial intelligence and your technologies and influencing packaging and e -commerce operations.
I use Autofill, for example, which is the deal we signed with Walmart.
Autofill includes a computer vision system called decttower. Think about made boxes, and these boxes are full of items. They pass through our vision system, which reaches precise dimensions and precise volumes and accurate data around the empty – including flap angles, flaps thickness in the box, including transparent items, which are difficult to detect. We built a very strong algorithm to obtain specific data that is fed in our devices at that time to distribute the right amount of paper, and then, that box is sealed with a strip.
All this is done without a human touch. All this is done automatically. Then our customer receives a lot of data on the content as well as the data from our vision system in all the dimensions they send. It helps to reduce waste from a cost perspective, helping to increase speed. We provide information that makes their line end performance faster and better through data and analysis of our visual system. Then, by building more and more data in your algorithm, we better improve our equipment and we complete our solution.
The use of artificial intelligence in our automation is across the board. This is literally in every product. We are trying to inject more artificial intelligence, including not only in automation, but at handheld stations to improve manual packages.
Artificial intelligence is also used in your salary box equipment, right?
100 % this helps our UPTIME. We have a visual system before and after our equipment.
After our equipment for quality control, assure our customers that everything is done properly.
Before our equipment, we use it and its 2D and 3D technology to make sure our equipment is updated. If there is a problem in the box, it diverts instead of going to our equipment and shaking it. And in this way, the device is preserved in a timely manner. In the automation trade, in order to deliver ROI, the most important metric is your day. And we use artificial intelligence to help uptime for our equipment, so we continue to deliver ROI.
Physical artificial intelligence and computer vision in our company and how to get closer to solutions are truly transformational. And last year, we have made great progress, given the evolution of artificial intelligence and the tools we have given us to strengthen our solutions.
Ranpak often refers to its sustainability goals. We are now seeing the focus of many companies from focusing on 2025 goals to 2030. What have you focused on the advancement of sustainability?
We are focused on increasing the recycled content in our fiber – this is one of our goals in the coming years. We are focused on post -use waste and use it. We are focused on the 100 % FSC and SFI transfer, so that we use the best forestry methods when preparing our product.
We increase our electric footprint. In Europe, we are very advanced, but in North America, it is early in our journey. We start with more combined vehicles and then want to move more power.
We are in the range of 2, in the field 2, finally in the range 3, to reduce our greenhouse emissions. So these are the kind of key anchors that we are focused on as a company.
We continue to pursue our goals and fulfill our commitments.
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